Assessment of Performance-Based Seismic Design Methods in ASCE 41 for New Steel Buildings: Special Moment Frames

Area of Science:

• Structural Engineering
• Earthquake Engineering
• Seismic Design

Background:

• Current seismic design codes (ASCE 7) aim to ensure building safety.
• ASCE 41 provides analysis procedures and performance metrics for existing buildings.
• Discrepancies may exist between new design standards and existing building evaluation criteria.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between anticipated seismic performance under ASCE 7 and predicted performance using ASCE 41.
• To evaluate if steel buildings with special moment frames designed to ASCE 7 meet ASCE 41 acceptance criteria for existing buildings.
• To identify potential challenges in seismic retrofitting and performance assessment.

Main Methods:

• Utilized analytical procedures based on component-level performance.
• Focused on the collapse prevention structural performance level.
• Compared design outcomes of ASCE 7-compliant special moment frames with ASCE 41 acceptance criteria.

Main Results:

• Analytical results indicate challenges in meeting ASCE 41 acceptance criteria.
• Special moment frames designed per ASCE 7 show difficulty in achieving the target performance level defined by ASCE 41.
• The study highlights a potential gap between new construction seismic standards and existing building evaluation.

Conclusions:

• Steel buildings with special moment frames designed to ASCE 7 may not satisfy ASCE 41 performance requirements for existing structures.
• There is a need to reconcile differences between seismic design codes for new buildings and evaluation standards for existing ones.
• Further research may be needed to bridge the performance gap and ensure consistent seismic safety.